Sweet Max, 'round these parts, hogs are exclusively male pigs. Females are sows. (Sow rhyming with cow.) No farmer I knew would ever say "the hogs" when referring to a group that he knew contained both genders. That would be "the pigs".

My grandpa used to raise pigs. I can still smell that sour pig-slop smell. When I was little, my sister and I used to throw corncobs at the boars. Extra points were awarded for hitting them you-know-where. Boy did they grunt then! And run! Little kids can be so cruel.

Jackie, I'd disagree with you on this, and think "hog" means the mature animal, of either gender.

BUT: bartleby-ing indicates that:-hog can either mean (1a) the animal, whether domesticated or the wild, or (1b) the domesticated animal, but especially one weighing over 54 kilograms (120 pounds)-boar can either mean the adult male, or the uncastrated male, or the wild boar.-pig means a member of this biological family, but "especially the domesticated hog ... when young or of comparatively small size."

Ogden Nash claims a different distinction between pig and hog:Why does the pygmyIndulge in polygmy?His tribal dogmaFrowns on monogma.Monogma's a stigmaTo any pigma:If he goes for monogmyA pygmy's a hogmy.

i've always thought of this as the complete family of pigs.. nowdays, with all sort of "pot bellied" pig being considered house pets, even city folk like me recognize that pigs is a very general term. Peccary is the family of pigs, including wild species of boars, warthogs, and all variety of domesticate pigs. it shows up in lots of the latin names for pigs, so if you know pigs mostly from the zoo, as i do, it actually is a pretty common word.

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